Furnishing Small Houses

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 279, 15 February 1928, Page 7

Furnishing Small Houses

SOME PRACTICAL ADVICE The Decorative Art PRACTICAL advice on the interior finishing and furnishing of the small house is offered by a writer in “The Australian Home Beautiful.” In the first place, it is urged that the inside walls of a small house should not he finished in white plaster, or that if they are they should be papered as soon as the plaster is dry. It will be found, the writer observes, that a room finished with neutral-tinted walls will need less furnishing and will occasion less anxiety about the colours of its contents than if the walls are starkly white.

“THAT neutral background/* it is added, “will serve to give everything its proper value. Colours that might even have been supposed to clash will resolve themselves into relative places in the general scheme. A bowl of flowers that before looked quite unimportant and scraggy will glow in flaunting beauty, and take up and accentuate other colour notes in the room. Coloured calcimines cannot give the effect that a paper—even a cheap one—affords. Wood* panelling tends to make rooms look smaller, and it is not suitable in a small house, unless perhaps for the hall. “Then with the furniture. If you have some good period furniture, you are very fortunate, and - you should be able to make your house look charming. But don’t be obsessed with the period mania. Some mixed pieces will not spoil your room. And when once you are given over heart and soul to a period, it means that all your decorations, even your ornaments and picture frames, should conform. This is cramping and sometimes dull in ultimate result. It has rather the effect of a very symmetrical ‘repeat’ pattern, which causes you to count and count until you become maddened and distracted. With the superperiod furnishing scheme, the brain becomes feverish in looking for matches, in accounting and measuring and assorting. . . . Subconsciously, the history complex is kept working overtime, till the aesthetic senses are jagged and jaded. In a arge house there is more room for period orgies, and relief can be given to a Jacobean dining-room by means of a Louis XV. drawing-room, a George V. breakfastroom, and a Stanley Bruce study.

“In choosing furniture for the small house, avoid cornery pieces, if possible. Rounded edges take up less room, and they are not so sharp to knock against, either. Hardwood floors, of course, are best; but be wary of too many small rugs that can be tripped over. Two large rugs are better than three small ones. “In a small house where the liv-ing-room is in constant use—the real dwelling-room—it is best to have cretonnes or good linens as coverings for the couch and chairs. Chenille and tapestry become shabby very soon, and don’t look as ‘homey’ and cheerful as chintzes. It depends upon the character of the room, of course. Floral cretonnes are quite out of place in a

formal style of room. Jacobean, or even Adam and Heppelwaite, look foolish with cretonnes. Arras or good washable poplin could be used; but tapestry is most suited. Mission styles or William Morris furnishings, or farmhouse style give the setting for cretonnes. But if your suite is figured or floral, have plain-toned cushions—with a few black ones included. “In a small house, several small tables are preferable to one large one. It gives the inmates a better chance to segregate when they wish —it offers something of the idea of space and privacy that are the advantage of the large house. A couple of collapsible card-tables or table “nests” are helpful and space-saving. “Built-in furniture, wherever possible, is, of course, admirable in the small house, which is another reason why strictly ‘period’ furniture is unwise. Most modern houses now have a built-in sideboard, severy hatch, and any amount of wardrobes, pantries and cupboards. These are the excellent fixings that make a small house often preferable and more comfortable than a large one nowadays. “See to it, when building, that your walls are thick enough to be pretty well sound-proof. Privacy is difficult enough in a small house; but, if the walls are well filled so as to be pretty well sound-proof, it is possible for a person to study in a room next to the loud speaker’s recitals, and the piano can be played after the baby’s bedtime. “In the small house, these are the things that matter most tremendously, aren’t they?” Odd pieces of lino are of great use as pot mats, and save much work. They are more attractive and uniform in appearance if they are cut into circles. Use varying sized plates as a pattern, and cut around them with a sharp knife. # * The necessity of the city building bylaws requiring that all buildings should be erected of one standard of material so as to protect the buying public from the jerry-builder was stressed by Mr W. H. Winsor at the annual meeting of the Canterbury Allied Building Trades’ Association last week. He also urged that the newly-drafted regulations should be brought into force at once.

COLOUR IN THE HOME

SOME PLEASING EFFECTS One of the latest developments in home building is the introduction of more colour to both the interior and the exterior. In this way some of the drab effects once produced are fast disappearing. Most people agree that the new house of colour is an appreciable improvement, and the demand is consequently increasing for this type of home. Right through the suburbs there has been a very decided improvement in the appearance of the buildings. Whether it is a large fiat or twostorey home, or an average villa, colour is being imparted to it in directions which were not thought of a few years ago. The terracotta tiled roof paved the way to the grey or green tiled roof. That seemed to have been the inauguration of the colour method. Now, however, tiles of various other shades are introduced and utilised to harmonise with terracotta or green, and give the roof an attractive appearance. This, of course, is only one aspect of the introduction of colour. The brick work, wood work, and even the fencing are treated artistically, and there is evidence of much consideration having been given to the harmonising of colours to produce the most pleasing effects. While very largely so far this ornamentation has been confined to the brick buildings, probably because they offered the widest scope, attention is now being directed to both cement and roughcast houses. To some extent in recent times concrete houses have been treated in different colours from the original grey cement tint. But the roughcast houses have been mostly white or grey. Now preparations are available for producing all kinds of eflects in these buildings. It is possible to have the same wide choice of colour tones as with other buildings, and this applied in the nature of cement which ensures durability of colour. The ornamentation and decoration of the interior of the home with the use of colour is more in evidence than ever, and has become the work of a specialist in colour harmonising, so exacting are the demands. The beautiful effects to be found in many homes are being achieved with a special plaster, not white and subsequently coloured as of old, but with which the desired colour is mixed. This is another way of ensuring greater permanency, and minimising the liability to damage by carelessness. To-day the home is being made brighter and more pleasant to live in than ever. Fit a wooden bottom to your coal scuttle. It not only will prolong the life of the scuttle, but it will make filling a less noisy process. • * * With modern builders comparing the relative merits of wood and metal lath as a plaster base an entirely new lath has entered the field which seems likely to attract a great deal of attention in building circles, says an American writer. This lath is of rock and combines the convenience of wood with the fire safety of metal. It also acts as an insulator. The lath comes in convenient lengths which are easy to apply and possesses unusual strength. Its adhesive composition prevents cracks or sliding of plaster.

FOR ELECTRIC LIGHTS

THE INVERTED GLOBE The old system of wall lights i* gradually giving way in modern electric lighting systems to the big, central, inverted globe, supplemented by movable lamps. A fairly large room can oe adequately lighted in this way by the central globe and two additional lamps, which stand on the mantelpiece or be plugged in at other parts of the room. While the French affect the white, daylight light, the English and Americans prefer something a little more mellow. Flat glass pans are made very thick and often with heav-ily-embossed glass which is slightly tinted inside. The design is generally stiff and not very noticeable, and it often happens that only the embossed part is coloured in pale yellow or orange. For spare-looking fireplaces, and particularly for those which are at all based on Adams designs, wooden candle-sticks are used, gilded with very pale, dull gold. These are heavily weighted at the bottom and in design have an elliptical instead of a round foot. They are slightly shaped and fairly tall. Perhaps the most satisfactory shades are those which are like a screen and shade only one side of the light. More in keeping with the severe, elegant lines of the candle-stick are shades of mottled parchment with a plain gold band round the edge. The practice of shading the light from below can be carried out by filling in with the parchment the lower opening of the shade. These give a charming light which is almost like the daylight, but very much softer.